Self Assignment

It is very common to increment a variable and store the result back in the variable itself.

value = value + 3

VB.NET allows you to use shortcut notation known as "self assignment".

value += 1  'value = value + 1 
value -+ 2  'value = value - 2 
value *=  3  'value = value * 3 
value /= 4  'value = value / 4 
value \= 5  'value = value \ 5 

You can also use self assignment with strings

string = "some" 
string += "text"  'string = string & "text" 

(You cannot use string &- "text"

+= operator returns a value as well as assigning the value